Your weekly dose of Notre Dame news, opinion, and other stuff.

Top News

The Blue-Gold Game (no longer featuring quarterback Tyler Buchner who sprained his ankle on a stair) will be played this Saturday. Preview HERE. 

The 33rd version of The Shirt will be unveiled this Friday on campus.

The No. 72 overall player in the country for 2023 committed to Notre Dame on Tuesday.

ICYMI, the Irish also added another member to the 2022 recruiting class.

There is a NIL foundation for Notre Dame players called FUND led by Brady Quinn and Tom Mendoza that will be starting for football players and expanding out to other athletes at the school.

Former Notre Dame quarterback and 2-time Super Bowl winner Daryle Lamonica passed away on Thursday.

North Carolina defensive end Tomari Fox will not be allowed to play in the 2022 season due to using a banned substance.

Old Dominion has extended head coach Ricky Rahne through 2026.

Uniform of the Week

I can’t think of a uniform that symbolized football strength and had an element of SEC-based fear behind it only to evaporate so quickly than the Tennessee Volunteers. From another conference you could put Nebraska up there, as well. But, Tennessee’s uniforms are much prettier–like Texas except not in a terrible spiced pumpkin latte dirty butt color.

I guess I kind of miss when Tennessee and these uniforms meant something. I’m nostalgic for that 1990 game at Tennessee with Rocket scorching the turf on a beautiful touchdown run. Even the 2004 visit to Neyland hits different than if the Irish were to go back now. Unless, their NIL pockets end up paying off and finally the Vols come back!

Recruiting

Speaking of Tennessee, they kept the top in-state recruit in edge rusher Caleb Herring (0.9655) who committed recently.

Iowa State kept quarterback JJ Kohl (0.8954) in-state, as well.

Edge rusher Gabriel Harris (0.9574) gave a verbal to Georgia.

Ryan Yaites (0.9430) is one of the country’s top safety’s and picked LSU.

USC picked up a commitment from running back Quinten Joyner (0.9081).

Alabama transfer wideout Agiye Hall has landed at Texas.

Former Texas A&M tight end Baylor Cupp has transferred to Texas Tech.

Ohio State corner Sevyn Banks is transferring to LSU.

Arizona State wide receiver Ricky Pearsall is transferring after leading the Sun Devils in production last year. He’s a rumored target for Notre Dame and has caught 61 passes for 794 yards and 5 touchdowns in his career since 2019.

Notre Dame could be looking at UCF receiver transfer Jaylon Robinson who is leaving Orlando after 3 seasons prior to one at Oklahoma. He has recovered from a knee injury in 2021 and had a huge 2020 season with 979 yards.

Freshman All-American linebacker Eric Gentry is also leaving Arizona State.

Miami picked up a key transfer from former West Virginia edge rusher Akheem Mesidor.

YouTube Channel

My next car is going to be an electric vehicle, I’m about 80% sure at this point. I just passed 100,000 miles on my Jeep the other day and have a home/work situation set up perfectly to take advantage of charging the car at night in the garage. I have a co-worker who is heavily involved in the EV community in my region and it’s been really eye opening and insightful experience learning from him.

So, who has an electric vehicle out there? Who wants one? Who definitely doesn’t want one? Ever since we decided my wife decided to have a 3rd baby we use her Grand Cherokee for all family functions with all the car seats. Although I have to brave the winters, I’m now thinking of down-sizing to a sedan or smaller hatchback-style SUV. There are going to be dozens of new models coming out in the next couple years that it’s difficult to track everything. Hopefully, production and availability increase soon. New stuff coming HERE.

Tunes

There was this popular tweet I saw several years ago that stated Outkast’s album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below made people think the group either got cancer and died or ascended to the heavens as Gods, or something to that effect. I’m telling you they are straight up immortal. In the non-rock division there’s no question that Outkast is my favorite group.

This double album dropped right at the beginning of the 2003-04 school year and I ended up buying it twice because the first copy got so scratched up and taken everywhere. As basically 2 solo records for each member rolled into one package, the first side with Big Boi is legitimately one of the top rap and hip-hop albums of all-time. The second, and more controversial side, is probably my favorite collection of music to come out since 2000. I believe Andre 3000 is the biggest genius in hip-hop and I love him.

Trivia

Which Notre Dame player scored the first touchdown of the 2021 season?

The Other Football

Things remain tight in the EPL. Both Liverpool and City won to keep the latter 1 point ahead for the title with 6 games remaining. Arsenal and Tottenham lost over the weekend but the Gunners won their game in hand on Wednesday at Chelsea. The last Champions League spot is now tied on points with Spurs having the goal differential advantage.

Sad news as Cristiano Ronaldo’s newborn son died.

Real Madrid, PSG, and Bayern Munich are close to clinching their respective league titles. Things are super tight in Serie A as AC Milan hold a 2-point lead.

Manchester United have announced the hiring of Erik Ten Hag as their manager beginning next year. The Dutchman has been the manager at Ajax since December 2017.

Streaming

My oldest will be 5 this summer and she’s only experienced a handful of new major release streaming movies in her life and still no movie theater experience. We’ve had Raya and the Last Dragon plus Luca sink their teeth into her but nothing has captured her attention and imagination as much as Encanto in recent months. She made us tape this sign over the archway to our living room for “Encanto Day” which inevitably turned into much longer than a day celebration.

Trying to be a cool dad, I made Quinn her own playlist on my Apple Music. We’re up to about 40 songs so far, mostly modern stuff she hears on the radio in the car. It’s now dominated by Encanto songs and guess what happens when I try to play anything I want to through a Bluetooth speaker in the house? I’m lucky if I get 2 songs in before she demands to listen to her playlist. The Encanto soundtrack is amazing, though. The movie nearly as good, too.

A Look Back

It’s been 1,301 days since Notre Dame faced Stanford in South Bend thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic restructuring the 2020 season. We get the pleasure (is this the right word!??) again this October 15th. It has felt good to pile on 90 points in the last 2 visits to Palo Alto, though. That dumb stadium has witnessed some of the weirdest and most frustrating losses over the last 10-15 years and getting back to some beatdowns feels like comfortable normalcy.

Where did I fall in that article about dropping one of Stanford or Navy? Did I pick Stanford? I think I did. It will never not blow my mind that we voluntarily agreed to play this program every year. Oh well, see you at Notre Dame Stadium this fall, losers.

18S Paddock Club

We are back for the 4th race of the season and it’s the first Sprint format of 2022 after last year’s foray into this altered weekend. A few changes from 2021, instead of points for the top 3 (3 for 1st, 2 for 2nd, 1 for 3rd) there will be points for the top 8 (8 for 1st, 7 for 2nd, etc.) in the Sprint–and while Friday’s fastest lap in qualifying is noted as taking poll–like last year the results of the Sprint will set the grid for Sunday’s Grand Prix.

The pandemic was a godsend for this Imola track. After not hosting any races since 2006, it was hastily added to the 2020 calendar and later signed a contract to host F1 events through the 2025 season. Last year’s race started in the rain, offered tons of spins and crashes, with Max Verstappen winning comfortably.

Emilia Romagna Grand Prix
Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari (aka Imola)
FP1 4/22 7:30 AM ET
Qualifying 4/22 11:00 AM ET
FP2 4/23 6:30 AM ET
Sprint 4/23 10:30 AM ET
Race 4/24 9:00 AM ET

Who is betting against Charles Leclerc and Ferrari right now? He’s looked dynamite so far this season and Ferrari is supposed to be bringing an update to the rear of their floor this weekend to minimize the bouncing on straights. It seems as though Red Bull were thinking about bringing some updates of their own but with the Sprint weekend and reduced practice schedule they may be waiting. Or who knows, maybe they will take a gamble. Alpine and Alpha Tauri are the 2 teams introducing significant upgrades, watch out for their progress.

Rain is also in the forecast for Friday for qualifying. This could surely mix up the grid prior to the Sprint and increases the chances someone from the midfield could grab a podium on Sunday. The long straight past the paddocks into the first set of fast corners should advantage Red Bull’s speed. However, the 2nd and 3rd sectors should heavily favor Ferrari’s balance, grip, and torque in the slower corners.

They’ve also moved the DRS Detection Line further back by 365 meters (nearly 1,200 feet!) half-way between the slow Variante Alta chicane and the penultimate corner. In other words, you can envision a scenario where Leclerc is quick enough out of Alta and never allows someone like Verstappen to gain DRS when they turn down the main straight when DRS is activated–even if visually they are very close to each other.

Until I see a poor race from Leclerc, he’s the favorite.

1st – Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
2nd – Max Verstappen, Red Bull
3rd – Esteban Ocon, Alpine

Trivia Answer:

Michael Mayer, 41-yard touchdown vs. Florida State